Toronto Airport - An Expensive Screw-up

In the midst of challenges, we tend to show our true character.

There was a sudden very cold snap this week that swept across the US and Canada. Major airports such as Chicago's O'hare, Cleveland and Minneapolis saw thousands of flights cancelled as airlines cited immobilized equipment such as re-fueling trucks with frozen nozzles.   But Toronto - the continent's fastest growing hub and 2nd largest international gateway in North America elected to introduce a ground stop overnight Monday-Tuesday when faced with the same weather.  Aircraft (except from overseas) weren't allowed to land or take-off until 9am local time Tuesday.

The result ?  People stranded on arriving aircraft overnight on the tarmac.  For 4-5+ hours.  When those that could get brought to a working gate arrived, their luggage stayed somewhere else.  Situations such as this reverberate across the whole air travel system, as when you clog the major connecting airport, the rest of the country feels it. Pilots are in the wrong locations, as are their planes. Today's passengers fight with those from the last few days to get onto the few operating flights. Sleeping on benches isn't the last resort, it's considerably better than sleeping on floors. It's an ugly travel experience for all involved.

So the question in my own mind was 'why?'

Toronto isn't the coldest airport in Canada, why did the others (including all similar US hubs) continue to cope with the cold, when Toronto collapsed ?

An airport is a community on co-dependance to function properly, so some parties fell down.  Was it airline reluctance to staff appropriately, or airport operations myopia ?  Beyond who failed, why did no party lead ?  In my own youth, I worked at Toronto Airport, and understand the logistics of aircraft movements.  It's not rocket science, just coordination amongst various parties to do their part of the bigger task.  Even if we accept that landing and de-icing wasn't optimal, towing aircraft to gates (even the wrong terminals) is more desirable than letting people sit on arrived aircraft for hours.  Cycle them in and out, deal with the people involved as a first priority.  Thank goodness no one was hurt.  Beyond the reputation of those that work at the Toronto Airport Authority as incapable fools.

No one dared lead in Toronto this week, and the results are pretty clear.  The expensive screw up didn't happen this week in the airport of  North America's 3rd largest city, it happened when the people at the airport authority were placed in charge.